Trollhättan

Overview

Trollhättan is a city with about 55 000 inhabitants situated along the Göta River 75 km north of Göteborg. The city was earlier most famous for its heavy industry, the locks, and the waterfalls. In older times Trollhättan was a city where the power of the falls was used as can be seen in the History section . Today Trollhättan is a modern city where the two most prominent industries are Volvo Aero and Saab Automobile. Saab Automobile is one of Swedens two major car makers whereas Volvo Aero is a maker of aircraft engines and aerospace parts. On the cultural side Trollhättan has recently become one of the important film making centres in Sweden.

History

The name The name Trollhättan has been known since about the medieval when the mills used power from the mighty waterfalls. In Göta river, north of the city there are still ruins from a castle, Ekholms castle. Unfortunately no picture is preserved. The locks Several attempts to bridge the falls where done. It was not until the year 1800 that the river route from the sea to the lake Vänern was accessible by boat. With the advent of the third generation of locks in 1916 Trollhättan got its city priviledge. Industry In 1847 the company Nydqvist och Holm AB (NOHAB) was founded. It was specialized in heavy mechanical work. Several spectacular things where made over the years, to mention the 500 heavy Russian locomotives in 1922-1925, the Titanic davits and a number of locomotives of all kinds. Steam as well as diesel and electric. In the early 1990s the company went bancrupt and the area is now host to Small and middle sized enterprises (SMEs) and museums. Electric power, the cradle of Vattenfall The pursuit to tame the falls has a long story, but it was in the beginning of the 1910s that the, at that time, largest hydroelectric power station in Sweden, the Olidan power plant was finished. In 1944 Håjum powerplant was completed and the last waterfalls became silent. Together the plants deliver about 270 MW making them a major source of hydroelectric power in the southern part of Sweden